Funds for Patriots Point repair survey get OK

Patriots Point officials hoping to move ahead with more than $50 million worth of repairs to the four ships that make up their naval museum won a crucial victory Tuesday.

The S.C. Budget and Control Board unanimously agreed to let the public authority spend $456,000 on repair surveys and $482,000 more to repair the concrete pier leading to the ships.

Retired Brig. Gen. Hugh Tant, executive director of Patriots Point, said he appreciated the help state Sens. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, and Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, gave the authority through the approval process.

The decision means the authority can hire engineering firms to come up with more specific plans to preserve the aircraft carrier Yorktown, the destroyer Laffey, the cutter Ingham and the submarine Clagamore.

It also can hire firms to study upgrading the museum site's electrical system and its retaining wall, which is suffering from erosion.

The total estimated cost of this work, plus the ship repairs and a new 20,000-square-foot museum, gift shop and restaurant, has been estimated at $64 million, but the upcoming survey work will help define that number. Tant said Patriots Point officials plan to travel to Washington, D.C., soon to see what federal money they might be able to secure for the repair cost.